SABC Newsroom Guest Smokes Marujuana During On Air Interview

The formula for the SABC Newsroom show on the SABC News Channel at 9am is very simple: a technologically driven news bulletin simulcast on Youtube and engaging with viewers on social media. It is that simple. Well at least on paper.

But the bulletin just seems to court controversy more than any other bulletin on the SABC News Channel.

Today, May 11th SABC Newsroom guest, Andre du Plessis, decided he was going to start smoking marujuana, an illegal substance in South Africa, live on a national broadcast platform that is owned by the government of South Africa.

Just last month the actual anchor of Newsroom, Eben Jansen, was suspended for his conduct during an interview with a member of the EFF.

The strange part of the marujuana incident is that the SABC actually posted a clip of the incident on their Youtube page (something they did not have to do as it just draws attention to the situation and considering the whole bulletin is uploaded to Youtube in any case) with the description/statement , "The SABC Broadcaster and the SABC Newsroom does not condone the actions of our guest Andre Duplessis. The views expressed in this video clip/ interview are not that of the SABC and Associates, but that of the guest."

What makes thing even weirder, so to say is that there seems to be cheering du Plessis from whoever is behind the camera in the Cape town studio where he was for the interview, as pointed out by one of the people who have commented on the video.

The incident also caused the term "Dagga" to trend on twitter earlier today.